Posts Tagged ‘Allagash’
Paste Names Best 25 American Breweries
Paste Magazine’s most recent “List of the Day” surveys the 25 best American breweries of the decade. Just hours after it was posted, a friend asked us what we thought. Overall, we think it’s pretty solid. We’ve had beer from all of the breweries, some more than others, especially Paste’s picks for the two top spots, Dogfish Head and Allagash. Still, we have a few beefs…
We wouldn’t have placed Victory or Founder’s in the top five. Those spots should have been reserved for cutting-edge breweries like Lost Abbey and Russian River. Similarly, we love Weyerbacher but probably would have placed Bell’s in its top 10 spot. And Jolly Pumpkin way down at 19? We don’t think so.
Perhaps going beyond the bounds of Paste’s rating method, we would have listed Brooklyn, Stone, and Samuel Adams much higher for their widespread efforts to inform American drinkers that there’s more to beer than Bud, Coors, and Michelob, as well as raise the status of beer in general. We also would have tried to squeeze Flying Dog, Left Hand, Troegs, and Duck Rabbit somewhere into the top 25.
Beyond that, if we could have done a Top 40, we would have tried to get O’Dell’s, The Bruery, Boulevard, Full Sail, Captain Lawrence, 21st Amendment, Sly Fox, Anderson Valley, New Holland, Clipper City, Bear Republic, and Elysian on the list, but it would have been very difficult to decide who goes where. Since many of the aforementioned breweries are up and coming, we have a good feeling several of them will be on next decade’s list.
Drool List: Pizzeria Paradiso at Dupont Circle
My Advil-providing coworkers know I enjoy Birreria Paradiso as much as the next fellow, but Georgetown’s paucity of public transportation means I only go there half as often as I’d like. Now that Paradiso’s Dupont location has expanded (and moved closer to the Circle), I have nothing to bitch about.
The new digs have 12 taps and a cask, and 180 bottles, according to bar manager Greg Jasgur. And although the bar itself physically looks like Birreria’s (a nice touch), Jasgur said the draft list will mostly feature different beers than Georgetown. Guess I’ll still be making the long haul to Fancyville.
I went this opening weekend and sampled many a fine beer, from Allagash’s new saison to that “Mad Bitch” beer those WaPo geniuses used in their unfunny routine. Pictures and the drool list after the jump.
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Belgian Styles: Putting Rumors to Rest
You’d be hard pressed to go into a DC bar and not find at least one Belgian beer, or Belgian-influenced beer, available. In establishments with, shall we say, less than robust selections this usually means Stella, Blue Moon, or Leinie’s Sunset Wheat, but DC Beer Week has had a lot of really great Belgian beer all over town. To our delight, more and more bars in DC are carrying a wider range of Belgian styles on a regular basis, including saisons, Belgian IPAs, and the dubiously-named dubbels, tripels, and quadrupels.
At some point, everyone has wondered why the latter three Belgian beers have been named in relation to each other. Is there math involved? If so, what factor is being multiplied? Speculation runs high, and we have heard claims of all kinds. “The styles have twice, three times, and four times the alcohol content of the monks’ basic brew.” “No, it’s the malt that’s doubled, tripled, and quadrupled in the recipes.” “It has nothing to do with ingredients. Most people couldn’t read back then, so the barrels of types of beer were marked with one, two, or three X’s.”
Each account has a bit of truth to it, but none is entirely correct. The simplest (while still accurate) answer is that the names have to do with the amount of malt used. However, the full explanation has more to do with an old brewing process in which the same malt was used for multiple batches of beer than it does with simply math and the unique characteristics that each style has come to exhibit today.
Another D.C. Beer Week? Yes, Please.
Update: Through some legal snafu, Brew at the Zoo will not be technically affiliated with D.C. Beer Week. All events are still on, though. For beer drinkers, this mostly means that you won’t see them listed on the same poster.
The Lagerheads piqued our interest earlier about a potential D.C. Beer Week in August that would culminate with Brew at the Zoo on August 20.
It’s official now: The festivities will run from Aug. 16 to 21, and so far 15 tastings, happy hours, meet-the-brewers, food pairings, and plain old drinking parties have been announced. There’s lots of H Street NE action, what with one of the organizers being Teddy Folkman of Granville Moore’s. Brew at the Zoo still seems like the main event, but The party ends on Friday with a Nats game featuring a discount for Beer Week attendees. (They’re playing the Milwaukee Brewers, natch.)
Here are the full listings. You will want to bookmark this sucker because there will be updates. The Web site’s not finished, but they’re also Facebookin’ (sorry, federal employees).
Your Last Beer on Earth: What Do the Pros Say?
As a follow up to our very own Beerspotter’s conversation about top five desert island beers, we offer this account of what some craft-beer stars consider to be the finest beers on the planet. During this year’s Lupulin Reunulin at RFD, a glorious night of drinking and mayhem where a handful of the most innovative American brewers bring out their best, the panelists were asked what they would choose as their last beer on Earth. Here’s what they said.
Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River in California was the first to respond. Emphatically, he said his last beer would be an Orval, on draft at the brewery in Belgium.
Tomme Arthur of Port / Lost Abbey in California, after confirming that he would have a whole ten minutes left to live to enjoy the beer, said that he would choose one from Alpine Beer Company. He settled on Alpine’s Pure Hoppiness.
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On July 4th Weekend, Buy American Beer
When I was little I once saw a Family Circus cartoon in which the father, on Independence Day, thanked China for their fireworks, Germany for their picnic of sausages and coleslaw, and so on. It was about as funny as, well, Family Circus — but the message stuck with me.
So on that note, I remind those of you stuck in the imports section of your beer store that America is home to the world’s most diverse beer selection, including many of the finest and certainly the freshest. This Independence Day weekend (I’m starting mine today), buy American beer. If you have a friend who thinks Stella Artois is the gods’ gift to Belgium, send ‘em this way for a list of proper American substitutes.
- Heineken (or Stella Artois) — Of the imports on this list, Heiney’s the one I’m least offended to get for free at a party. But it’s still just the Budweiser of Europe. If crisp, clean lagers are your thing (and in July, they’re certainly mine), try Stoudt’s Gold Lager or Sierra Nevada Summerfest.
